As late-night talk shows continue to film in quarantine, many are asking musical guests to give at-home performances of their music. Charlie Puth joined James Corden virtually on The Late Late Show to give a stripped-down rendition of his latest single, “Girlfriend.” Along with performing the single, Puth talked about his upcoming music and detailed his indelible experience working with the legendary Elton John.
As Puth readied himself to perform “Girlfriend,” the singer revealed he was about to play at a piano that was recently signed by Elton John. The musician had arrived at Puth’s home months ago to work on music, and Puth was blown away by John’s talent. Puth even told Corden that John recorded their entire song in just one take:
“Before lockdown, we met at a restaurant — the maître d’ introduced us — at this place called Craig’s in LA. I walked over and I was just excited to meet Elton. He said, ‘We should write.’ And when I hear that I think, ‘Okay, yeah. You’re very busy, I’m very busy. That’ll probably never happen. The next day, I get an email from him saying, ‘I could come over next week.’ And he did. It was pretty surreal having Elton John in my house because my parents were also home as well. Everybody was pretty much drooling. The first thing he said to me was, he sits down at my piano in my studio, and he says, ‘You and I write very differently. I’m given lyrics, then I write the song. Charlie, you make the music first and then you write the lyrics. So I don’t know if we’re going to be able to come up with anything, but let’s try.’ And he sits down and plays the entire song that we wrote, it’s three minutes and three seconds. He plays the entire thing first take, didn’t do any more takes. He records the entire thing and he’s like, ‘How about that?’”
Watch Puth sing “Girlfriend” on The Late Late Show above.